soothed by just looking, idling over it
as if it were a clear barometerxa0or a mirror, when his reflection
did not appear but I sensed a presence
entering into my concentration…
xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0 xa0xa0
Published in 1984, Station Island represents a literary pilgrimage for Heaney, as he explores his complex relationship to his homeland, his faith and the past.
The title poem, ‘Station Island’ – steeped as it is in ritual, memory, and ghostly visions –xa0is central to the poet’s autobiographical quest for personal and artistic integrity.
Set on Lough Derg, a place that has been a site of pilgrimage for over a thousand years, this key collection of twelve poems represents the twelve ‘stations’ pilgrims go through to obtain a sense of healing, renewal and peace. In the same way, Heaney imagines his ‘Station Island’ as a symbolic literary retreat to conduct a very personal ‘examination of conscience’.
Directed by the Lyric’s Executive Producer Jimmy Fay, this dynamic performance melds the spoken word, film, and sound to evoke the poet’s process of self-examination.
